AMMONIA REMOVER?

I just received an email advertisement from PETCO, and one of their sale items is an ammonia remover that fits on the output end of an under gravel or similar filter. Has anybody ever used one of those things? They're inexpensive, and if they work, would be a good investment. I'll see if I can find the ad again and will post the name of the filter media.

They're zeolites. Are they used in canister filters, and how effective is the stuff? Since I'm stuck on under gravel filters, all the new technology has apparently passed me by.

Hi John!

Actually, they are a bad idea, unless you're facing a critical situation where your ammonia has sky rocketed. Zeolites do remove ammonia, but if you remove the ammonia, your biofilter will crash. It's a much better idea to maintain a heathy cycle than to chemically mess with things.

Thanks for joining this forum, and thanks for the information about ammonia removers. It was advertised as sort of an insurance policy against ammonia spikes. I should have realised that the grand cootie of aquariums doesn't like it when you interfere with the nitrogen cycle.

No problem John. It would be nice if more people would join too, this forum seems to lack the glitches plaguing so many others.

Anyway, just remember if you have happy cooties, you'll have happy fish. There is really no chemical fix that can compete with good old fashioned husbandry, IMO.